Think Small: the surprisingly simple ways to reach big goals

Authors: Owain Service and Rory Gallagher

Publisher: Michael O’Mara

Details: 240 pages, £16.99

ISBN: 9781782436324

Why is it that people are capable of behaving rationally and sensibly in some contexts but irrationally in others? Why do we often behave in ways that are contrary to our long-term goals? Why do so many of us consistently fail to keep New Year’s resolutions, and what can we learn from people who seem able to set and keep such goals?

Over the past half-century, behavioural science has explored these questions, and books such as Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow have explained the findings for a wider audience. Think Small is a new addition to this canon. The authors are part of the Behavioural Insights Team (otherwise known as the Nudge Unit), where their job is to use this research to help government work more effectively. This book explains some of the unit’s projects, as well as providing seven steps for any individual who wants to use behavioural science to achieve their goals.

The principle underlying Think Small is that we have two different ways of thinking: slow and fast. Slow thinking is reasoned and deliberative. Fast thinking is automatic and habitual. Our slow systems set us ambitious goals like stopping smoking or running marathons, but our fast systems struggle to realise them. Often, the difficulty is not a lack of motivation. For example, one reason why people struggle to reduce their drinking or sugar intake is because it is hard for our “fast” brains to tell exactly how much alcohol and sugar is in certain substances, and to keep track of how much we have consumed over time. How can we combat this and get our two thinking systems working in sync?

The authors recommend a few different approaches. One is to set specific “bright lines”: with sugar and alcohol, if you have to get out a calculator every time you want a chocolate bar or a pint, you are setting yourself up for failure. Instead of a target such as “cut back on alcohol”, try “no drinking at home during the week”.

Another tactic is to chunk: break down complex goals into smaller tasks. Sometimes, this can be straightforward. Write a page of an essay a day rather than pulling an all-nighter; break down annual savings goals into smaller weekly and monthly targets. At other times, chunking is not as simple, and instead requires breaking the task itself into its constituent parts. For example, you should not chunk a marathon by running one mile further every day. You will need to do other activities, too, each focused on a different aspect of running. The same is true of job-hunting: the book opens with the experiences of Paul, a jobseeker who was part of a Nudge Unit pilot, being given a checklist of activities to help him find work.

Can such insights be applied to teaching? Yes, but I think doing so will be harder than in other fields.

First, in education there is often opposition to the very idea of chunking. In history, suggesting that pupils learn a series of facts is often criticised as being reductive. Instead of teaching historical dates, runs the argument, we should teach historical understanding. But this is like saying that we should not help people to set a diet plan because we should focus on their losing weight. Or that we shouldn’t encourage them to improve their CV because we should focus on their getting a job. The diet plan and CV are steps towards a goal, just as the dates are steps to achieving historical understanding. Herbert Simon, one of the fathers of behavioural science, recognised and rejected this anti-chunking tendency. He argued for what he called “componential analysis”, saying that education without this would be “frightening”.

Second, even if we accept the value of chunking, there are many different ways of going about it. Tasks and goals can be broken down in more or less effective ways. To identify the best ways of chunking, we need research, which in some areas is lacking. Even where it does exist, it needs translating into classroom-friendly approaches. Many phonics programmes have succeeded in doing this, and there is growing interest in the expressive writing method of teaching writing, too. More work like this is needed.

These challenges mean that putting these principles into practice in education will be more difficult than in other fields. However, the potential improvements could be even greater. There is an enormous opportunity for us if we can overcome the tendency to mock and belittle the small stuff. Thinking small is not the opposite of dreaming big. It is the pathway to achieving those dreams.

Daisy Christodoulou is director of education at No More Marking and the author of Making Good Progress? and Seven Myths About Education